Tomas Berdych and Denis Shapovalov gave admirable performances while trying out for the next James Bond film. But it's Karen Khachanov who makes the most of his brief screen time ...
Showing posts with label tomas berdych. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomas berdych. Show all posts
Monday, August 05, 2019
Tuesday, October 02, 2018
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Hearts Aflutter as Adidas Raises Hemline on Men's Tennis Shorts
Gilles Simon
Sometimes it's the little things -- and Adidas really delivered with its latest "kit" being sported by many of its stars. The collarless blouse clings nicely to the guys' bodies -- but it's the blue shorts that have been raised just a tad that have me very excited about the summer tennis season ahead. Sure, they're not exactly in Boris Becker territory. But it's a step in the right direction!
Stefanos Tsitsipas may have lost this match to Richard Gasquet. But he won the sartorial sectionals ...
Monday, January 22, 2018
Weekend Tennis Roundup
There are a million stories out of Melbourne, so let me just home in a few that really stood out. Hungarian hunk Márton Fucksalot — I mean Fucsovics and his pornstache gave Roger Federer a little bit more of a match than anyone expected.
You may recall I noticed HIS ASS in June ...
Thumbs up!
Roger, please. ✋#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/FM7RMEkOju— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2018
In fairness, there wasn't a lot he could do about this.
Damian was disappointed that Juan Martin del Potro lost to Tomas Berdych. But neither of us was complaining about getting to see the bottom-heavy Czech play again, this time destroying Fabio Fognini. (Márton has a better face than the Byrdman, but not quite the bod.)
Next up for Berdych is Federer. After upsetting the Swiss legend a couple of times, now it seems HE feels the pressure when they play, making it nearly impossible for him to get a set anymore. Guess we'll see if that's changed.
While I've been pretty down on my beloved women's tour of late, I have to admit the two best matches I watched this weekend were on the ladies' side. Simona Halep is definitely an embarrassing No. 1 -- have I mentioned that she won just ONE tournament last year and lost in the first round of two of the majors?! -- but she and Lauren Davis sure put on a show in their third-round match. The pint-sized American was fearless and aggressive, and probably would have won it when she had three match points if her toe nail hadn't come off. Halep ended fighting back, winning 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 to advance to the fourth round, where she easily dismissed Naomi Osaka, who I really thought had a bright future but am starting to doubt her mental strength.
The other incredible match was 2016 champion Angelique Kerber versus No. 88 Hsieh Su-wei, who upset Garbiñe Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwańska en route to the round of 16. Kerber was the obvious favorite after dismantling Maria Sharapova in the third round -- are we sure meldonium isn't a performance-enhancing drug? -- but had her hands full with the clever Taiwanese, who played like the love child of Fabrice Santoro and Monica Seles, slicing and dicing the ball and inventing new angles until Kerber nearly broke down.. (Hearing that she was from Taiwan gave me flashbacks to Hu Na!) Somehow the 30-year-old German recovered from a set down to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, but everyone was in awe of the "zone"-like performance Su-wei put on for about 90 minutes.
Chris Fowler, Chris Evert and Pam Shriver were dying as much as Damian and I were -- it was truly unbelievable!
Kerber is the remaining Grand Slam champion in the women's singles draw. She will play American 17th seed Madison Keys in the final eight, who looked unbeatable in her match against Caroline Garcia.
Congrats to Brit Kyle Edmund, who defeated Andreas Seppi 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 to advance to his first major quarterfinal. His post-match interview sounded so much like Andy Murray I was downright spooked.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Grounds for Happiness
Here's a lengthy-but-quick photo roundup of our trip yesterday to the U.S. Open. Damian and I got grounds passes, which generally means you will miss some of the marquee players who are on Ashe Stadium. But with Tuesday's virtual rainout, organizers had no choice but to spread everyone out throughout the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which allowed for some incredibly intimate tennis watching, as you will see.
We started with Tomas Berdych versus Ryan Harrison. Although I knew Berych was built, I had no idea how massive he was until I was 10 feet from him. (Look at those tree trunks above.) I'm frankly shocked he can move as well as he does carrying all of that around.
Ryan, of course, was as adorable in person as you would imagine. He gave Berdych a little something to think about in the third set, but was really no match for the big-hitting Czech. (Harrison also lost in the first round of doubles on Thursday.)
I see Tomas was injured today, however, and ended up losing to the guy we saw next, below.
Russian Andrey Rublev all but blew Slovenian-born Aljaž Bedene off the court.
But the 28-year-old, who now players for Great Britain, was awfully easy on the eyes.
From HERE.
Always a thrill to see Feliciano Lopez, who won in four over Russian Andrey Kuznetsov
Norbert Gombos of Slovakia was a thing of beauty, but fell in five to Serbian Viktor Troicki. (They were wearing matching Lotto shirts, shorts and shoes.)
Was excited that Tracy liked my tweet!
Lucas Pouille let a two-set lead slip away versus Jared Donaldson ...
Jan-Michael Gambill's protégé in action
but bouncing back to win it in five. Our theory was the young American's, um, unusual haircut distracted him. Both were gunning to be added to my Hottest Asses in Men's Tennis list ...
The highlight of the excursion was undoubtedly the battle of the youngsters, Alexander Zverev vs. Borna Coric. Although Zverev suddenly finds himself seeded 4, Coric had beaten him en route to the 2013 U.S. Open juniors title and once on the pro circuit.
Grandstanding!
After winning the first set, it looked like Sascha's current stature was going to be the deciding factor. But Coric was not intimidated. And the match wound up being one of the most exciting things I've seen in years, with each player opting to set points up slowly and methodically instead of just going for winners right out of the gate. In the end Coric saved three set points at love-40 down in the fourth set before outplaying the fellow 20-year-old in the tiebreak to win it in four exhilarating sets.
During the post-match interview, Coric seemed sort of dazed and confused ... and adorable!
Back on the outer courts, Benoit Paire and Sascha big brother, Mischa Zverev, put on an entertaining match of cat-and-mouse tennis ...
with Mischa and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat winning in five. (Is Colours by Alexander Julian making tennis clothes now?)
We caught one second of Petra Kvitova's win over Alizé Cornet, but ended up getting this close to her.
Latvian hunk Ernie Gulbis wasn't having much luck against South African Kevin Anderson in the Battle of the Giants. But it was fun watching him mope around ...
And on the other side of the sidewalk the Battle of the Munchkins went on, with Diego Schwartzman (5-7) coming out on top of Janko Tipsarević, who claims to be 5-11 but is 5-9 on a good day.
Sloane Stephens kept her comeback summer in tact, outslugging Dominika Cibulková in three tough sets.
And then the night ended with another bonus, with Garbiñe Muguruza -- who would likely have been on Ashe -- following Zverev-Coric on the (new) Grandstand. I'd never heard of her opponent, Duan Ying-Ying, a 28-year-old from China. But you'd never guess she was currently ranked 92 the way she came out and out-Muguruza'd the Wimbledon champ for most of the first set, with incredibly powerful and well-places groundstrokes. But as is often the case where an unknown quantity plays a big name, once she got broken, the match was virtually over, with Muguruza cruising to a 6-4, 6-0 win. The perfect ending to a perfect day -- and night -- at Flushing Meadows!
P.S. Why does everyone now think the world is their living room?
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Weekend Tennis Roundup
I know things are already under way in Paris, but for the record:
Stan Wawrinka warmed up for the French Open by retaining his home Geneva Open title on Saturday, beating Mischa Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
The top-seeded Wawrinka clinched by breaking serve with a fierce forehand crosscourt pass to beat left-hander Zverev’s advance to the net.
Wawrinka’s first title in 2017 is the 16th of his career, and the seventh on clay including the 2015 French Open. The Swiss is the No. 3 seed at Roland Garros, and first plays the 152nd-ranked Josef Kovalik of Slovakia.
In the Battle of the Might Have Beens: Second-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France won his first title on clay when he defeated Tomas Berdych 7-6 (2), 7-5 in the Lyon Open final on Saturday.
Tsonga dropped just three points behind his first serve, hit 13 aces, and saved both of the break points he faced to down his third-seeded Czech opponent.
Tsonga's victory came a day before the French Open starts in Paris. No Frenchman has won the Roland Garros title since Yannick Noah lifted the Mousquetaires Cup in 1983.
Samantha Stosur outlasted Daria Gavrilova in an epic all-"Australian" final in Strasbourg, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. I'd like to see Sam build on this in Paris -- she should have won her first Slam there in 2010 -- but I'm not holding my breath.
Sam joined a long list of people who thinks Margaret Court is an idiot.
UPDATE: And now Andy Murray has spoken out for equality.
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